A Pirate through Necessity
by Average White Writer
Summary: To stop Annabeth being raped Percy must kill. The only problems: it was the camp's activities director and now that Percy is on the run for murder. Follow as he runs from injustice the only way a son of the sea can do.
1. Chapter 1

The last couple of days had felt like a life time in hades. Like some serious fields of punishment level shit. First Sloan, the school bully at Meriwether College Prep, steals the picture Annabeth on her vacation to Washington DC. from my wallet, then these Canadian cannibal giants show up just in time for gym class. The coach says we're going to be playing dodgeball but then the balls start to explode because dodging normal balls is too easy. Of course Annabeth shows up and saves my arse and then I learn she'd been peeking into my bedroom just this morning! While this wasn't as bad as almost dying it was still mortifying but at least I could use it to tease her later on.

Then there's the whole Tyson is a cyclops and also your brother thing. Yep, that was definitely a surprise. A massive, fire proof, one eyed surprise. And then there was the addition of Chiron, the hero training centaur, no longer being at camp, a pair of bronze bulls attacking the border and some arse hole had poisoned Thalia's pine tree.

It was safe to say it was definitely some fields of punishment level manure being shoveled into my life.

Camp wasn't as I remembered. Not only was Chiron gone but he'd been replaced by Tantalus. This guy was literally prisoner numero uno down in the underworld, I hadn't heard the full story but it was something about tricking the gods into eating his own son or stealing nectar from the palace of the gods, Mount Olympus, or possibly both. Who could even keep track of all these different things? I was sure as Hades that it was well beyond my own dyslexic and ADHD racked brain to research and memorise it.

Forgetting whatever reason he was punished for in his first life, I knew what he should be punished for in this one: being a massive dick. I'm pretty sure that the judges of the dead took that into consideration. Annabeth mentioned that William Shakespeare was one the panel and he punished Macbeth in that book he wrote after he was a dick to all those other people, right? I was never that good at paying attention in English literature classes.

Of course camp still looked the same, the cabins, the forest the lake and the sea front still hadn't moved but it no longer felt the same. It felt like the camp wasn't whole without it's wizened horse-man hybrid.

Tantalus hadn't actually changed a lot, not really. He'd made punishments stricter but then the rules had also changed. How strict the new rule were depended on who you were, if Tantalus liked you and the activities director's current mood. He'd also banned anyone leaving the camps boundaries without permission from either himself or Mr D, but then Mr D hated even talking with the campers so that basically made it Tantalus's decision.

The one good thing Tantalus had done in my eyes was reintroducing chariot racing to the camps activities roster. Originally I was going to work with Annabeth but then I'd managed to piss her off, it was normally my fault when Annabeth was angry, so now I was working with Tyson.

The chariot was coming along nicely. We'd designed it together and now Tyson was making it, with some help from Beckendorf the Hephaestus cabin leader. I'd always been useless with a hammer but Beckendorf had been singing Tyson's praises for his skill in the forge.

Apparently the axle was now completed and the whole chariot should take shape in the next two or three days. I was getting quite excited now, even the thought of the unpredictability of the first race was getting my blood pumping.

But right now I wanted to talk to Annabeth.

I didn't like her being annoyed with me, she was my closest friend at camp and all these unsettling dreams about Grover I'd been having recently had really shaken me up. Annabeth was always able to talk sense, the one with all the knowledge and the know how. The one person I'd met who could make a plan under any circumstance and pull it off flawlessly. And more importantly the only person I wanted watching my back in a fight.

I was walking up to cabin 6, the home of all of Athena's brain children. I'd already been to the archery station, where Athena cabin was scheduled to be, but I hadn't been able to find her. Malcolm, Annabeth's half brother, had recommended checking the cabin and then the infirmary, saying she might be coming up plans for the chariot race or capture the flag or looking after wounded campers as she often did both.

When I got there I saw that the door was open and that could only be a good sign, right? It would be very unlikely that some brainiac kid would leave the door open with their very violent rivals, Ares cabin, just across from them. So I walked up to the grey building and poked my head through the door.

What I saw inside would stay with me until my dying day.

Annabeth was inside.

But so was Tantalus.

"Come on, little girl, do what I say and I won't punish you." I heard Tantalus snarl as he made a grab for Annabeth's arm. What I can only presume was years of combat training meant she was able to dodge his first swipe but she'd been back up against her bed and had very little room to maneuver. I took a quick look around the room and saw that Annabeth's knife was on the floor clearly thrown or knocked away and definitely useless to it's owner.

"No! Get away from me!" I could hear her cries from the doorway. I had to do something but I didn't know what to do.

He made another swipe, Annabeth managed to move her arm out of the way again but this time he managed to get a hold of her orange camp half-blood tee shirt.

"Now I've got you, little girl." Tantalus said as he pulled Annabeth towards him, she resisted but the fabric of her shirt wasn't as strong. It started to tear at the seems as Tantalus pulled harder and harder. And as Annabeth gave one last shake of protest as she tried to make the pervert loose his grip it tore completely leaving the young girl's chest bare to the world.

"That's how we _like_ it!" Tantalus shouted as he licked his lips and threw the now useless piece of cloth away.

I still didn't have a plan to stop this but I started to walk towards the pair hoping that a witness would spook Tantalus. Annabeth had seen me now, I made contact with her grey eyes, watching the tears form and roll down her cheeks: I had to stop him from harming her.

I fished my trusty pen Riptide from my pocket, uncapping it as I raised it. I hoped I'd judged the distance between myself and Tantalus because as much as I wanted to stop him I didn't want to kill him.

"Come on, let's get the rest off you, sweetheart." I heard Tantalus purr next to Annabeth's ear. He'd pushed her on to her bed, one hand trying to unbutton her jeans while the other pushed down on her budding teenage breasts holding her to the mattress.

I will admit I lost it then. It had gone to far. I no longer cared what happened to Tantalus, he'd taken far too many liberties with my friend and I was going to stop him.

"Aha, got it." Tantalus cried, it seemed he'd finally got the button undone.

"Too late." I said as I drove my sword through the back of the lower part of his head.

The blood was rushing in my ears, I could feel the adrenaline pump through my veins. I felt it as Tantalus seized up. As all of his muscles simultaneously contracted. The jerk sent through my sword as the muscles around the vertebrae I had just stabbed through.

And then just as suddenly the body of Tantalus relaxed. All of his muscles relaxing from their contracted state. All of Tantalus's weight was how hanging on my sword, the sudden weight was a jarring shock about what I'd just done.

I'd killed a man.

Sure he was a massive dick who had just tried to rape my best friend and had helped make my life a living Hades these passed few days but I'd just killed him. There wasn't any justice in this, it was murder.

The realisation was too much, I couldn't take it. Riptide fell from my hand and along with it, Tantalus's body fell to the floor.

I stared at the person I'd just murdered; my sword reaching out of his gaping mouth, his face was slack no sign of any shock or any perverse enjoyment the man had been feeling the moments before. His face was blank.

Tantalus was dead.

And I'd murdered him.

"Percy?"

Annabeth was still here, I wouldn't have been surprised to see disgust plastered all over her face. I wouldn't have been surprised if she hated me or turned me over to the authorities.

"Percy!" She was shouting at me now. I looked up, trying to decide to meet her eyes or just to study the floor next to Tantalus's body.

But she didn't look angry, or disgusted, or even slightly weary about being so close to a murderer. No, she looked thankful, if worried.

"Percy, are you okay." She'd grabbed my face now steadying it to look at her own. " Percy you need to get going!"

This surprised me.

"What?" Of course I had the intelligent responses ready.

"You just saved me but Mr D won't see it that way! You just stabbed the activities director at Mr D's camp, he's going to be mad at you!" She was quite frantic now, her hands was shaking my head as she said every word.

Of course there was a… downside to all this shaking. I noticed that Annabeth was still topless.

I imagine that my face was doing a very good intimidation of a tomato as I stuttered "Annabeth, y-your shirt."

And then she flushed red as well.

"Here take mine." I said as I took my camp shirt off of my head, slightly out of being noble but it also hid my embarrassment if only for a fraction of a second.

She took it thankfully and slid it over her head before entering planning mode again.

"You need to run, Percy. Mr D will blame you and probably kill you regardless of why you did it." She said at rapid speeds, I just nodded knowing that she'd come up with a much better plan than I could and interrupting her would just slow down the process. "You should go to the sea, your father's domain should protect you from the other gods influence even if Poseidon doesn't allow you to enter his court."

I nodded.

"I would suggest that you beg for whatever help you can get from your father, maybe he'll give you a submarine or a boat that will help you escape." She just carried on, ignoring everything around her: Gods, she was wonderful.

"But what about you?" I asked Annabeth and suddenly she seemed stumped. "Hear me out!" I say but it clear that my friend is just humoring her self. "Don't you think that Mr D might punish you because you were here?" No matter how confident I was with my plan I would always check with Annabeth to check that it would go the way I hoped it would.

"I'll be fine, Mr D won't try anything not with mom looking out for me." She said, "You, on the other hand, are a son of Poseidon. Mr D will hurt you cause Zeus would side with him over your father no matter what happened. You're the one in danger here, Percy. You need to go!" I could see that she was really worried now, her face was all screwed up and she kept playing with her hair. She always did that when she was worried.

"Go, Percy, go to the beach, pray to your dad and run. Please Percy." She begged. "I want you to be safe after all you did for me, not just now but on our quest last year and everything we've done since. You mean a lot to me Percy and I couldn't stand it if you took the fall for saving me from this, this pervert." And then she hugged me. Which was weird. Annabeth wasn't a hugging person. She showed affection with a slap or a punch to the arm.

But it felt nice.

Being hugged that is. Being hugged by Annabeth. Course I'd hugged by my mom and all that but this was different but also better.

"Go, seaweed brain, before someone stumbles in here and finds this mess." She said as she gestured to my sword still impaled through the back of Tantalus's head.

I reached down and took riptide by it's handle and by using my foot to push Tantalus's body away I pulled it from the director's corpse. The blade was covered in blood. This was new, monsters didn't really leave anything behind when you killed them. Maybe there'd be some slime but nothing bad, nothing bloody. Fishing the pen cap from my pocket I capped my sword causing it to become a pen once more. Maybe the whole magic shrinking thing would clean it as well.

I was walking to the door when I thought of something. "I want you to have it." I said, holding out Riptide.

"What?! But it was a gift from your dad! I couldn't take it from you." Annabeth protested.

"He'd understand." I said, waving off her protests. "I never want you to be disarmed again."

Annabeth nodded, not saying anything.

"Bye, Annabeth." I said as I walked back towards the door. "Iris message me!" I called back over my shoulder. As I left the cabin the thought hit me that I was, quite possibly, not going to see any of this again. This could be my last time seeing the cabins, my home of last summer. Even before I left I knew I would miss this place.

"Percy!" I heard shouted from inside the cabin. It was Annabeth, her head now poking out of the doorway. She was crying again but now she had a grin stretched across her face. "Thank you."

A smile at her once more, that lopsided one that my mom says make me look like I'm up to no good. I didn't really know what to say. So I didn't say anything at all. I turned back around and began jogging towards the beach, trying not to make eye contact with any of the campers.

I was attracting a lot of looks though probably because I was missing my shirt, it was an unusual sight for camp unless you were on the beach itself. But then it could have been people thinking I'm a hero after the mess last year with the Lighting Bolt and all that. Course they wouldn't think I was a hero after Annabeth tells them what happened. No matter how grateful she was, I'm still a murderer.

* * *

 **So this is a new idea I've had after the high I was on for finishing Forgotten in Marriage  
** **Let me know what you think and if you want me to keep going.  
** **Thanks for reading**

 **An Average White Writer**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

So I'd managed to make to it to the beach before the alarms had been sounded.

Thankfully so far I'd only gotten a couple of odd looks, being shirtless and all, but that should be find. At least it would be if those people who'd seen me didn't know why the alarms were going off for at least a couple of minutes first.

I'd been praying to my dad, Poseidon, as I had run to the beach hoping that he'd answer me, that he'd see that I was trying to do the right thing even if i took… extreme measures to make sure my friends were safe.

Gods I hope that Annabeth will be okay.

Would she be okay after what Tantalus had done?

Could she be okay?

Whatever the case I was feeling less guilty about killing the camp activities director.

The beach was thankfully empty and while that would normally be unusual for early june but I guess with Tantalus in charge people were taking less time to relax and take in the rays on the beach.

I slowed to a walk as I reached the water line, there was nothing here.

No boat.

No submarine.

Not even a surfboard.

Dad hadn't pulled through as Annabeth had said and as I'd hoped. I was definitely gonna get smited by Zeus for this. I wouldn't be able to outrun the gods on land. My cardio was terrible!

Though they could also fly/teleport so I guess they don't need good cardio to catch me.

Maybe I could swim away? The sea was my, well my dad's, element; the gods wouldn't follow me there would they?

Probably not.

But sea monsters would become a problem. They'd become a very big problem very quickly.

Sea monsters are typically bigger than the monsters a halfblood would come across when traveling over land as they didn't have to support their own gigantic weight. This made them all the more dangerous. And while being a son of Poseidon would give me an advantage in water. They would also have the home turf advantage.

So maybe swimming wasn't a good idea.

I didn't want to fight the campers of camp half-blood, who rightly thought I was a murderer, so standing and fighting wasn't an option I wanted to entertain either.

I threw myself to my knees into the surf in one last ditch effort.

Gods I hoped this final pray would work.

So with my eyes closed and head bowed I began to attempt to talk to my dad.

Dad? If you're there, I need help. I need to escape from camp. I killed Tantalus because he was trying to rape Annabeth, I couldn't let him. I know it's wrong but it's all I could think of. I try to do the right thing and do you proud… I'm sorry if I never met your standards but I swear if you help me this once I will do everything I can to make you proud.

I hadn't gotten a reply.

No big booming voice in my head.

No choir of nymphs serenading my dad as he descended from the clouds.

Not even a glass bottle with a note washing to shore.

Knowing that my chances of survival had dropped faster than an eagle onto it's prey. I began to trudge away from the surf hoping that my cardio was good enough for me to get at least some distance away from camp half-blood before the gods came for me.

That was until an unusually large wave washed over the top of my sneakers.

This was odd for a number of reasons.

I was now at least more than a couple of feet away from where the waves had been reaching.

The tide was going out.

Waves don't suddenly get that much bigger.

I turned to see what had caused it and I'll admit I was surprised.

A boat was sitting just off of the seashore.

Like a massive fuck off boat.

A massive fuck off old timey boat.

LIke with sails, three massive sails.

And three decks of cannons. I thought they got rid of cannons a thousand years ago. And this boat had loads it. I'd counted 16 and it must have at least three times more on the one side I could see.

The boat was painted yellow and black and at the stern, the back in boat speak, was it's name.

HMS Victory.

It sort of clicked but I couldn't remember where it was from. It didn't look greek that was for sure and American boats had USS at the beginning.

Ah Ha! It was British, they had HMS. It stood for Her Majesty's Ship.

What was the difference between a boat and a ship anyway, I think I should know that. The whole being Poseidon's son thing and all.

None of this was really important though. The important thing was that there were no crew members. I could take it and escape.

"Thanks dad!" I shout to the air around me as I dive into the water.

I used my powers over the surrounding water to push me towards the Victory resulting in what would have been a world record time for a one hundred meter race if it had been timed. Though of course I wouldn't use my powers in a competition setting as it would be unethical and morally wrong. Though really I was just worried about the rant I'd be on the receiving end of from Annabeth.

That was if I would be able to go on land to compete in swimming competitions ever again.

Or if I would be able to see Annabeth again.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I hit the boat with my head.

And it hurt.

Like a lot.

It turns out that really old boats are made of hard materials.

I had to climb up a ladder that was built into the side of the ship. The rungs were small and slightly slippery making them hard to climb. Honestly it was a miracle I didn't fall back into the water. Once I'd gotten about half way up to the top deck I was able to clamber onto the rigging. The ropes were much easier to climb, not that I felt safe while climbing. No far from it. The rigging moved back and forth a surprising amount as I clambered higher towards the deck.

I managed to get two feet firmly onto the deck with only minimal stumbling as I dropped off of the rigging. This boating was going to be hard to get used to.

And then it hit me, the Victory is massive. It must have been at least two hundred feet in length and as I looked up it seemed it was just as tall!

How was I supposed to sail this beast of a boat without a crew?

"It is very large, isn't it?"

A voice had spoken from behind me. I spun around to see who it was.

"Lady Athena?" I blurted out before realising that that was probably insulting to my father's biggest rival. I dropped into a bow hoping to appease the warrior goddess: this wasn't someone I wanted to piss off.

"It has one hundred and four cannons spread over three gun decks, did you know that?" The goddess said, as if she were giving a tour at a museum instead of meeting with a murderer who's on the run from the Olympian gods. "Horatio always liked to have extra as a Vice Admiral, some might have called it excess but then this excess may have saved more than a couple of lives of the sailors under his command so it could be argued that it wasn't excessive at all."

I wasn't really sure what to say but my mouth came up with something before my brain could check if it was stupid.

"Welcome aboard HMS Victory, my Lady."

Gods I wanted to slap myself, Athena was literally just talking about some Admiral Vice or something: she's probably been on the bloody ship before and I was just celebrating not falling back into the water.

Thankfully she seemed to take it in good humour and smirked slightly, though her eyes looked wistful: maybe someone else had welcomed her aboard before?

"Thank you, Captain." I knew it was a joke but I did like the sound of that.

Captain Jackson

Captain Percy Jackson.

Yep definitely liked the sound of that.

Slowly coming back from my small day dream I'd saw that all humour and joy had left Athena's face.

"To business, Jackson." She said. "I don't like you." Well that was just rude, she hardly knew me! This was like the second time we'd met. Or at least the second time I'd known she was there. Thinking about it, I'd probably offended her at some point if I didn't know to watch myself with it. "I don't like your father." Still fairly rude but I guess they'd at least gotten to know each other fairly well over the millennia. "But you did my Annabeth, and by extension me, a great service by saving her from that despicable man."

"Annabeth's my fri…" I started saying but she cut me off, yep I'd definitely annoyed her at some point.

"And although I dislike you, I will reward you for this." Really she might be rubbing in the whole not liking me thing a bit much now. "Your father saw fit to grant you the HMS Victory." She commented as she surveyed the ship as if taking notes on what she'd have changed and improved if she'd been the one to design the Victory. "And I believe that it was a good gift for sea spawn like yourself, even one as uneducated about it's history as you." Really this was insulting, I'm not sure I liked this reward very much. "But it isn't enough for preserving my daughter purity."

She stopped talking, for how long I don't know but she continued her in depth look of the Victory, seemingly lost in thought.

"As historic as this ship is, it won't stand very long against monsters." She stated, nodding her head. It looked like she was agreeing with herself. Though I guess that begins to happen when you're the most intelligent person in the room, or maybe all the rooms in Athena's case: you can only get intelligent conversation with yourself.

Then she clicked her fingers and a flash of light blinded me temporarily.

When the spots in my eyes faded Athena announced.

"I've upgraded your ship."

She was now looking down on me and I had the feeling I should be groveling.

"Er… Thank you, Lady Athena." I managed to say but to be honest with you I wasn't completely sure on the correct amount of groveling to do when an Olympian goddess upgrades a boat you've sort of just claimed. "I'm very grateful for your help. How did you upgrade the ship exactly?"

I prayed to the gods that I wasn't be rude.

Wait!

If I was praying couldn't Athena hear me?

Well I can at least hope she saw I wasn't trying to be rude.

She'd raised an eyebrow. Yep she'd definitely heard me. But she didn't look mad so I guess something out there was looking out for me.

"I've made a number of upgrades to your ship, boy." Maybe she was a bit mad then. "The first being the Celestial Bronze frame work I've put within the original wooden timbers. This will give the Victory a more rigid hull allowing for greater speed as well as greater armour during any encounters you have with monsters or other… foes. Secondly, I've upgraded the cannons. They will now fire Celestial Bronze cannon balls as well as firing at voice command. I've also changed the colour scheme to the outside of the boat as this ship is no longer a part of the British Navy. The Victory is now sporting a completely black hull and masts. The sails are also predominantly black but I've taken the liberty to put a depiction of your father's trident on the main sail in an ocean blue. Next I added some scent masking protections. This will keep most monsters away from you while you travel but as you're a power half-blood some will still be able to track you. This will also become less effective with the more half-bloods you have on board. The last change I made to the Victory I made was to the figurehead, though I'll leave you to see that for yourself."

"Er, thank you Lady Athena." I still wasn't totally sure on the whole how much should I be thanking this all powerful deity. "I'm, er, most grateful for the changes you've made to the Victory." And to be honest I'd not been able to keep up with all of them. She'd mentioned the new paint job and my ADHD meant I'd got caught up with looking at the sails and not hear the rest of them only to zone back in to hear Athena mentioned that she wasn't going to tell me about the figurehead.

"I will take my leave now Perseus Jackson, do not let all these changes go to waste. I'm sure my daughter would be most disappointed in you if you died." Athena said before striding towards the side of the Victory. Just before she was about to take the step that had assumed would leave the goddess plunging towards the vast ocean below us, she turned. "A piece of advice. Plot a course south, Captain Jackson."

I was so busy grinning at my new sort of title I almost didn't turn away in time to avoid being vaporised by the goddess as she flashed away.

Ha, Athena just flashed me.

* * *

 **Hey guys  
Sorry for the wait, had exams, a holiday and now a summer job getting in the way of writing more  
Hope you enjoy this chapter, any feedback is welcome  
**

 **An Average White Writer**


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